xxxvii, 596 pages : 25 cm

A groundbreaking comparative study of the dynamics and pathologies of war in modern times. Over recent decades, Pulitzer-winning historian John W. Dower has addressed the roots and consequences of war from multiple perspectives. Here he examines the cultures of war revealed by four powerful events--Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, and the invasion of Iraq in the name of a war on terror. The list of issues examined and themes explored is wide-ranging: failures of intelligence and imagination, wars of choice and "strategic imbecilities," faith-based secular thinking as well as more overtly holy wars, the targeting of noncombatants, and the almost irresistible logic--and allure--of mass destruction. Dower also sets the U.S. occupations of Japan and Iraq side by side in strikingly original ways. He offers comparative insights into individual and institutional behavior and pathologies that transcend "cultures" in the more traditional sense, and that ultimately go beyond war-making alone.--From publisher description

Includes bibliographical references and index

pt. 1. "Pearl Harbor" as code: wars of choice and failures of intelligence -- Infamy and the cracked mirror of history : "Pearl Harbor" as code ; The boomerang of "Pearl Harbor" -- The failure of intelligence : Prelude to Pearl Harbor ; Prelude to 9-11 ; Postmortems: Pearl Harbor ; Postmortems: 9-11 -- The failure of imagination : "Little yellow sons-of-bitches" ; Rationality, desperation, and risk ; Aiding and abetting the enemy ; "This little terrorist in Afghanistan" -- Innocence, evil, and amnesia : Catastrophe and the transfer of innocence ; Evil and the transfer of evil ; Amnesia and Frankenstein's monster ; Evil where the price is worth it -- Wars of choice and strategic imbecilities : Pearl Harbor and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ; The emperor system and imperial presidency ; Choosing war ; Strategic imbecilities ; Deception and delusion ; Victory disease and the gates of hell -- "Pearl Harbor" as godsend ---- pt. 2. Ground Zero 1945 and Ground Zero 2001: terror and mass destruction -- "Hiroshima" as code -- Air war and terror bombing in World War II : Ghost cities ; Extirpating "noncombatants" ; "Increasing the terror" in Germany ; Targeting Japan ; Firebombing the great cities ; "Burn jobs" and "secondary targets" ; Morale, shock, and psychological warfare -- "The most terrible bomb in the history of the world" : Ground zeroes ; Anticipating zero ; Becoming death ; Ending the war and saving American lives -- The irresistible logic of mass destruction : Brute force ; August 1945 and the rejected alternatives ; Unconditional surrender ; Power politics and the Cold War ; Partisan politics -- Sweetness, beauty, and idealistic annihilation : Scientific sweetness and technological imperatives ; Technocratic momentum and the war machine ; The aesthetics of mass destruction ; Revenge ; Idealistic annihilation -- New evils in the world: 1945/2001 : Evil beyond recall ; Arrogating God ; Holy war against the west: seisen and jihad ; Ground zeroes: state and nonstate terror ; Managing savagery ---- pt. 3. Wars and occupations: winning the peace, losing the peace -- Occupied Japan and occupied Iraq : Winning the war, losing the peace ; Occupied Japan and the eye of the beholder ; Incommensurable worlds ; Planning postwar Japan ; Eyes wide shut: occupying Iraq ; Repudiating nation building ; Baghdad burning -- Convergence of a sort: law, justice, and transgression : Jiggering the law ; Legal and illegal occupation ; War crimes and the ricochet of victor's justice ; Spheres of influence and the limbo of defeated armies ; Dissipating intangible assets -- Nation building and market fundamentalism : Controls and capitalisms ; Corruption and crime ; Successful and disastrous demilitarization ; "Generalists" versus "area experts" ; Privatizing nation building ; Rendering Iraq "open for business" ; Aid in two eras ; Combating carpetbagging in an earlier time ; Mixed legacies in an age of forgetting -- Epilogue: Fools' errands and fools' gold : Secular priesthoods and faith-based policies ; Fools' errands ; Fools' gold

National Book Award for Nonfiction finalist, 2010

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